West Nile virus lineage 2 isolated from Culex modestus mosquitoes in the Czech Republic, 2013: expansion of the European WNV endemic area to the North?

I Rudolf; T Bakonyi; O Šebesta; J Mendel; J Peško; L Betášová; H Blažejová; K Venclíková; P Straková; N Nowotny; Z Hubálek

doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES2014.19.31.20867

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West Nile virus lineage 2 isolated from Culex modestus mosquitoes in the Czech Republic, 2013: expansion of the European WNV endemic area to the North?
I Rudolf¹ , T Bakonyi^2,3 , O Šebesta¹ , J Mendel¹ , J Peško¹ , L Betášová¹ , H Blažejová¹ , K Venclíková^1,4 , P Straková^1,4 , N Nowotny^2,5 , Z Hubálek¹
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Affiliations: ¹ Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences, v.v.i., Brno, Czech Republic ² Viral Zoonoses, Emerging and Vector-Borne Infections Group, Institute of Virology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria ³ Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Szent István University, Budapest, Hungary ⁴ Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic ⁵ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman

Correspondence:
Z Hubálek
zhubalek brno.cas.cz
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Citation style for this article: Rudolf I, Bakonyi T, Šebesta O, Mendel J, Peško J, Betášová L, Blažejová H, Venclíková K, Straková P, Nowotny N, Hubálek Z. West Nile virus lineage 2 isolated from Culex modestus mosquitoes in the Czech Republic, 2013: expansion of the European WNV endemic area to the North?. Euro Surveill. 2014;19(31):pii=20867. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES2014.19.31.20867 Received: 24 Jul 2014

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Abstract

We report the detection and isolation of four almost identical strains of West Nile virus (WNV) lineage 2 from Culex modestus mosquitoes collected at three fish ponds in South Moravia, Czech Republic, during August 2013. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the Czech WNV strains isolated are closely related to Austrian, Italian and Serbian strains reported in 2008, 2011 and 2012, respectively. Our findings show the current northernmost range of lineage 2 WNV in Europe.